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D'var Torah by Yisrael Kaplan

Yisrael Kaplan (Cohort 7) was a middle-school teacher for three years at the Emery/Weiner School in Houston, Texas, before making aliyah. He now works for Nefesh b'Nefesh in Israel.

The
apparent obligation to drink on Purim "until one doesn't know..."
troubles me year after year. Of course, several of Chaza"l
themselves seem equally troubled by this instruction. Why did our hachamim
obligate us to get drunk on Purim?

The
megilah opens with the feasts of King Achashverosh in the third year of
his rule. This is significant, according to several commentators, because at
this time his kingship was solidified (see Rash"i and others). Having
consolidated his rulership over a hundred twenty seven provinces, the king
makes a feast for his officers, and then another for all the people of the
capital of Shushan. Where at this point I would have expected the king to
show his power by announcing powerful decrees to unify the kingdom,
Achashverosh takes a different approach:

"And
the drinking was according to the law, there was no coercion, for so the king
had established for every officer of his house to do according to each man's
pleasure." (Esther 1:8, trans. Artscroll)

According to Rash"i, at some meals there
was a "drinking minimum" – one was served a large cup of wine and
obligated to drink all of it, even if it was difficult for him. Here,
Achashverosh declared: the rule is, there is no rule; everyone will choose for
himself how much or how little he wants to drink.

Why did Achashverosh choose this approach? Maybe
it was another way of fully solidifying his kingdom: drawing his subjects near
by welcoming them openly, without restrictions or obligations. In this
kingdom, they would be free to choose what they wanted.

However in a world without obligation, something
else is lost. A sense of obligation – toward good – gives us direction,
purpose and identity. Unrelated to the particular circumstance of
drinking, perhaps Chaza"l saw these values in danger. The meal, they taught, was
attended on Shabbat and served on the utensils of the holy Temple! (Esther
Rabbah) It was truly a meal in exile and a meal of exile. Perhaps this teaches that without a
notion of obligation, our values, memories and vision are also
jeopardized. Therefore, in that very place, the rabbis stood up and
decreed: There is a rule; we are obligated.

But this is still troubling. Why here?? Why
make this statement through the return to an act of becoming drunk??

This rule is not carried out in the same
way as in the feasts of old. From amid the controversy inherent in this
rabbinic obligation comes an array of practical understandings of it: While
some poskim understand it to entail drinking a lot (safely!), others
emphasize that drinking relatively little – enough to fall asleep – fulfills
the obligation fully and appropriately. What emerges is a range of
approaches, in which important concerns are addressed, while the sense of
obligation is nevertheless preserved - and fulfilled. This is
a real "v'nahafoch hu" from Achashverosh's approach that
allowing for choice means giving up on obligation – according to Chaza"l,
we can develop a feeling of responsibility toward our tradition and remain a
part of it, and still find our own path within it. We don't have to choose
between the two.

Throughout Jewish law, the range of interpretations
is not infinite. It makes room, however, for the individual and includes multiple
possibilities while challenging us to develop a sense of obligation and
responsibility toward our tradition and our identity.

In class as well, we want to give students
freedom, draw them in and create a fun learning experience. But a classroom
with no expectations or rules is destructive. And we know the truth:
Students don't want that either. It may be fun at first – but
students are serious people, and they want to be challenged. They also
want to feel cared for. Providing structure and expectations in our
classrooms gives students both senses of challenge and security.

May we always strive, together with our
students, to find ourselves in the Torah we learn. Purim Sameach!